FIRE & BIODIVERSITY GUIDELINES FOR THE AVON BASIN PREPARED FOR THE AVON CATCHMENT COUNCIL AND DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION BY ERICA SHEDLEY FIRE AND BIODIVERSITY GUIDELINES FOR THE AVON BASIN Consultant Report to the Avon Catchment Council and the Department of Environment and Conservation, August 2007. ERICA SHEDLEY BSc (Hons), PhD WINNIJUP WILDFLOWERS RMB 382 BRIDGETOWN Western Australia 6255 (08) 97617512 [email protected] ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was made possible by funding from the National Heritage Trust, administered through the Avon Catchment Council and the Department of Environment and Conservation. The GIS support provided by Ms Nicki Warnock from the Mundaring DEC is gratefully acknowledged. Graeme Keals as project manager in Narrogin DEC provided positive ongoing support and direction, as did members of the project management team. Useful discussions and valuable feedback came from Brett Beecham, Colin Yates, Carl Gosper, Angas Hopkins, Ian Wilson, Kim Williams, Joel Collins, Mitchell Davies, Roger Armstrong and Wendy Johnson. Useful comments were also received as a result of several public meetings held in April 2007 in Hyden, Merredin and Northam, particularly from landholders, FESA and volunteer fire brigade members. Consultant Report to the Avon Catchment Council and the Department of Environment and Conservation, August 2007. The report was compiled by Dr Erica Shedley during the period August 2006 to August 2007 with assistance of staff of the Department of Environment and Conservation. The Report does not represent the views or policies of the Department or the Avon Catchment Council. Cover photograph by Graeme Keals Other photographs and images by Erica Shedley Printed by Drum Print + Publications, Mandurah, Western Australia Email: [email protected] Disclaimer The information contained in this report is based on sources believed to be reliable. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this report, Erica Shedley gives no warranty that the said base sources are correct and accepts no responsibility for any resultant errors contained herein and any damage or loss, howsoever caused, suffered by any individual or corporation. iii Table of Contents PREFACE vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY viii PART ONE GENERAL GUIDELINES 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Description of Avon Basin 1 1.2 The need to conserve biodiversity 2 1.3 Fire regimes 4 1.4 Fire in the Avon Basin 4 1.5 Scope and objectives for the Guidelines 5 2. FIRE MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES 7 2.1 Principles for fire management 7 2.2 Objectives for ecological fire management 9 2.3 Information 10 3. RESPONSES TO FIRE 12 3.1 Plants 12 3.2 Animals 17 3.2.1 Mammals 17 3.2.2 Reptiles 19 3.2.3 Birds 19 3.2.4 Invertebrates 23 3.3 Fungi 24 4. ECOLOGICAL FIRE MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES 25 4.1 Determining appropriate fire interval ranges 25 4.2 Ecological fire models 27 4.3 Obtaining fire regime variability 30 4.4 Allowing for no planned burn areas 32 4.5 Allowing for wildfire 34 4.6 Allowing for drought 36 4.7 Community protection burns 38 5. PLANNING FRAMEWORK, PRIORITIES AND PROCESSES 39 5.1 Planning guidelines 39 5.2 Levels, objectives and responsibilities of fire planning 40 5.3 Priorities for fire management 46 5.4 Fire planning model 52 5.5 Fire planning for private remnant vegetation 56 6. MANAGING FIRE IN A FRAGMENTED LANDSCAPE 56 6.1 Fragment size, shape and connectivity 56 6.2 Fire and weed interaction 58 6.3 Fire and grazing pressure 60 6.4 Fire and salinity 62 iv 7. VEGETATION MAPPING 64 7.1 Vegetation mapping in the Avon Basin 64 7.2 Ecological fire planning units 66 7.3 Managing complex vegetation landscapes 69 8. ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF PRE-BURN PREPARATION 70 8.1 Firebreak construction 70 8.2 Weed control 73 8.3 Soil erosion control 75 8.4 Disease control 76 8.5 Feral animal control 78 9. MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH GAPS 79 9.1 Management gaps 79 9.2 Research gaps 82 10. ECOLOGICAL MONITORING GUIDELINES 83 10.1 Monitoring of fire planning objectives 83 10.2 Key evaluation questions 84 10.3 Adaptive management 85 10.4 Fire research 86 10.5 Priorities for monitoring fire management objectives 87 PART TWO FIRE GUIDELINES FOR VEGETATION CLASSES 1. BROAD VEGETATION STRUCTURAL CLASSES 94 2. WOODLAND 95 2.1 Distribution of major woodlands 95 2.2 Fire management in woodlands 99 3. LOW WOODLAND 103 3.1 Distribution of low woodlands 103 3.2 Fire management in low woodlands 104 4. MALLEE SHRUBLAND 105 4.1 Distribution of mallee shrublands 105 4.2 Fire management in mallee shrublands 107 5. SHRUBLAND 110 5.1 Distribution of shrublands 110 5.2 Fire management in shrublands 113 6. SHRUB HEATH 115 6.1 Distribution of shrub heath 115 6.2 Fire management in shrub heath 118 v 7. SUCCULENT STEPPE 120 7.1 Distribution of succulent steppe 120 7.2 Fire management in succulent steppe 123 8. MOSAIC VEGETATION 123 8.1 Distribution of mosaic vegetation 123 8.2 Fire management in mosaic vegetation 124 9. ROCK OUTCROPS 126 9.1 Distribution of rock outcrops 126 9.2 Fire management of rock outcrops 128 10. SALT LAKES AND WETLANDS 131 10.1 Distribution of salt lakes and wetlands 131 10.2 Fire management of wetlands 132 11. REFERENCES 134 PART THREE APPENDICES 149 Appendix I Vegetation associations in the Avon Basin 149 Appendix II Vegetation classes in the Avon Basin 154 Appendix III Vegetation associations in the IBRA sub-regions 157 Appendix IV Key flora indicator species in the IBRA sub-regions 163 Appendix V Rare and priority species in the IBRA sub-regions 180 vi PREFACE While preparing these guidelines and in discussions with people involved with fire management, it became apparent that the scope of the project was very ambitious and that one person was unlikely to come up with a set of detailed guidelines that meet ecological fire requirements for the large area covered by the Avon Basin. This was in part due to the scarcity of scientific knowledge and fire management experience about different vegetation communities in this semi-arid region. Similar guidelines in other states have taken many years to develop with the full support of the scientific community. But it was also ambitious in that there was insufficient time for much wider debate within the Department of Environment and Conservation, and with Fire and Emergency Services, Local Government, environment groups and the community. This debate and community engagement is required before more comprehensive fire management guidelines can be developed to meet the needs of all concerned. Given the short time frame for the project it was decided that these guidelines would aim to compile existing knowledge of the ecological fire requirements for a range of vegetation communities within the Avon Basin, and highlight areas where there are gaps in our knowledge and management experience. In this context, the guidelines should be regarded as a preliminary step in the development of fire management guidelines for the Avon Basin, and not be used in a prescriptive way. The guidelines should hopefully stimulate further debate and research that is targeted to meeting the gaps in our knowledge. Due to the low level of fire management in the Avon Basin in the past, there was seen to be a need to develop a more strategic and regional approach to fire management. Much of the content of these guidelines is aimed at this level, rather than at the local district or prescriptive level. Regional management structures and processes are discussed along with a simple means to prioritise prescribed burns. This prioritization process is an important part of regional planning due to the limited resources available to complete the work, and can be developed further as a decision model within a spatial GIS framework or as a Master Burn database that can be used at all levels of fire management. An ArcGIS project was developed during this project that has a number of layers of DEC corporate spatial data clipped to the four main IBRA sub-regional natural resource management boundaries in the Avon Basin. This tool can be used as a basis for strategic fire planning although it needs to be updated with other important layers such as fire history and reserve condition data as this information becomes available. A summary of the vegetation associations, vegetation classes, key fire response species and threatened flora for each of the four main IBRA sub-regions is presented as tables in the Appendices section. This information enables strategic fire planning to be managed at the IBRA sub-regional level should this be required in the future. vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report has presented the current knowledge about biodiversity values in the Avon Wheatbelt and aspects of their conservation with respect to fire management. A basic structure and process has been recommended for implementing and monitoring fire management for biodiversity conservation as a priority. This is based on using Beard- Hopkins vegetation associations as the basic fire planning unit and developing a GIS spatial database to identify areas available for burning. Fire management for biodiversity conservation needs to be considered in association with priorities for community protection as detailed in the associated Wildfire Threat Analysis report. In compiling this report several issues were outstanding in their need for urgent attention. 1. Many areas have not been burnt for at least 50 years and are in urgent need of regeneration before they lose their reproductive capacity. This is particularly so for many of the smaller reserves and areas of remnant vegetation. 2. High priority vegetation communities and species requiring sensitive fire management include: • Granite rock and ironstone outcrops • Heath communities • Salmon gum woodlands • Fresh and brackish wetlands • Malleefowl habitat • Hollow dependent fauna habitat (eg numbats, red tailed phascogales, cockatoos) 3.